Margin control apparatus with variable length margin zone

ABSTRACT

There is herein disclosed apparatus for providing a variable length margin zone in margin control apparatus comprising, in one form, variable positionable switch actuating means operably associated with a printer carriage and, in another form, adjustable electronic counter means associated with printer and margin control apparatus circuitry.

United States Patent Arjani et al. [451 May 23, 1972 MARGIN CONTROL APPARATUS WITH ences Cited VARIABLE LENGTH MARGIN ZONE UNITED STATES PATENTS [72] Inventors: Farouk D. Arjani, San Mateo, Calif.; Ken- ,3 ,5 6/1963 LOfbel' 6 8 /2 neth C, Greeley; Craig B. Adams et al. S in Lo m, b th f C 3,439,341 4/ 1969 Dolby et al 197/ l 9 X [73] Assignee: Intercontinental Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, p Examine, Roben a p lf Calif. Assistant Examiner-Stephen C. Pellegrino 221 Filed: Feb. 2, 1970 [2|] Appl. No.: 7,507 [57] ABSTRACT There is herein disclosed apparatus for providing a variable 52 us. Cl ..l97/63, 197/20 length margin Zone in margin control apparatus p g. in [5 Int Cl "841] 21/02 one form, variable positionable switch actuating means [58] Field NW 19 20 operably associated with a printer carriage and, in another fon'n, adjustable electronic counter means associated with printer and margin control apparatus circuitry.

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MARGIN CONTROL APPARATUS WITH VARIABLE LENGTH MARGIN ZONE BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION tape reader or the like. The margin control apparatus is utilized to automatically control the righthand margin of printed data which is placed on a sheet of paper in a difierent position than the position it occupied when the control tape was prepared. Margin control apparatus of the type to which this invention relates is now well known in the art and is described in detail in U. S. Pat. No. 3,386,552 and copending commonly owned application Ser. No. 739,477 filed May 20, 1968, for Editing and Revision System, the disclosures of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference. Prior art margin control apparatus provides a righthand margin zone of a predetermined number of printing spaces (conventionally 7 to 9 spaces) in which a line of type is automatically terminated at an appropriate place in the textual data as by the occurrence in the margin zone of the end of a word or punctuation or a carriage return or the like. In the event that the end of the margin zone is reached without automatically terminating the line of type, the automatic operation is terminated to permit the operator to properly hyphenate the word or otherwise terminate the line of type.

The present invention is an improvement over prior art margin control apparatus in the provision of variable margin zone length adjusting means by which the amount of variation in location of the last character of lines of type may be more closely controlled as necessary ordesirable by varying the number of printing spaces in the margin zone. The variable margin zone length adjusting means may be in the form of mechanical adjustment means for varying the position of actuation of margin zone defining switch means operable by a movable printer carriage or in the form of electrical adjustment means comprising an electronic printing space counter controllably associated with a manually adjustable rotary switch by which the counter may be preset in accordance with the desired margin zone length.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partial schematic plan view of a mechanical adjusting means form of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an end view of a portion of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 including a margin zone switch assembly associated therewith; and

FIG. 3 is an illustrative schematic circuit diagram of an electrical adjustment means form of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a pair of conventional mechanically operable switch means 10, 12 are'schematically shown (out-of-scale) to be mounted on a common switch support plate 14 on one side of a conventional movable print head typewriter form of printer 16 of the type manufactured by IBM and known as the Selectric. The printer has relatively movable printing means and paper holding means of conventional design to enable formation of a line of type in printed textual form on a sheet of paper or the like. Switch actuating arms 18, 20 are operably engaged with a conventional pivotally mounted printer bail 22 which extends parallel and adjacent a conventional margin control printer rack 24. Switch is normally open and connected by suitable circuitry 25 to conventional margin control apparatus 26. Switch 12 is normally closed and connected by suitable circuitry 27 to the margin control apparatus. The switches l0, l2 define the margin zone by indicating when the beginning and the end of the margin zone have been reached by the printer carriage. When the margin zone is reached during automatic operation of the printer in response to coded input data from a tape reader'28 or the like, the margin control apparatus is effective through suitable circuitry 29, 30 to cause a caniage return to the next line of type upon detection of the first permissible place in the data such as the end of a word, the hyphenating of a word, the end of a sentence or paragraph or the like. The margin control apparatus is also efiective to stop automatic printer operation at the end of the margin zone if no carriage return has occurred automatically so that the operator may insert a hyphen or otherwise end the line of type.

A conventional printer righthandmargin setting lever 31 is adjustably slidably mounted on the rack 24 by a bracket 32 of elongated but otherwise generally conventional design except as hereinafier described in further detail and which slidably supports a shorter bracket 33. A cam plate 34, attached to and movable with the printer carriage (not shown), extends generally parallel to the rack and the bail. The cam plate has a first elongated low profile cam portion 36 and a second high profile cam portion 38 which actuate the margin zone switches 10, 12 as will be hereinafter described in further detail. The cam plate 34 also carries a lefthand margin control element 40 which forms no part of the present invention.

The bail 22 is operably connected to the printer carriage at the margin zone through wire actuators 42, 43 slidably mounted in bracket flanges 44, 45. Hook portions 46, at one end, extend around the bail and the other ends of the actuators are pivotally connected at 47, 48 to cam follower members 49, 50. These members are pivotally mounted at 51, 53 on brackets 33,- 32, respectively, and have cam surfaces 52, 54 engageable with the cam plate portions 38, 36, respectively. Adjustable slide bracket 33 is adjustably slidably mounted on the elongated bracket 32 by a pin 58, rack 60, and spring 62 arrangement releasable by a lever 64 which extends transversely to the rack. The positions of the teeth 66 of printer rack 24 generally correspond to the position of the rack teeth 60 and the normal position of the cam surfaces 52, 54 of members 49, 50 generally corresponds to the positions of the rack teeth so as to be located in step-by-step relationship with the movement of the printer carriage and plate 34 from printing space to printing space along a line of type. A position indicating arm 68 is attached to the main margin lever 31 and extends under the margin zone adjustment lever 64. Suitable indicia 69 may be provided on the indicating arm for cooperation with a'marker 70 on the lever 64 to indicate the length of the margin zone which is adjustable by moving the adjusting lever 64 and associated slide bracket 33 relative to the margin setting lever 31 and associated slide bracket 32.

In operation, when the margin zone length control lever 64 is located at the 0 position as shown in FIG. I, the cam portions 36, 38 on the cam plate 34 simultaneously engage cam follower members 49, 50 when the print carriage reaches and enters the margin zone to simultaneously actuate the entering margin zone switch 12 and the end of margin zone switch 10. When the margin zone length control lever 64 is set at one of the other positions l-7, the low profile cam portion 36 first engages the cam follower .50 (after passing under cam follower 49) to actuate the entering margin zone switch 12 and high profile cam portion 38 subsequently engages the cam follower 49 to actuate the end of margin zone switch 10 after a selected number of printing spaces in the margin zone have been traversed by the printer carriagelhus, in the illustrative embodiment the length of the margin zone in which a line of type may be appropriately automatically ended is variable between a minimum of zero printing spaces and a maximum of seven printing spaces. It will be understood that the adjustable length of the margin zone may be varied as necessary or control panel. The rotary switch has a manually operable selector wheel 81 for selective positioning of a movable contact 82, as indicated by broken line 84, relative to fixed contacts 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100 to select the effective length of the margin zone. In the presently preferred arrangement, the maximum length of the margin zone is seven printing spaces and the selector switch means has eight selection positions designated to 7. An electronic margin zone length counter means 102 is connected to the selector switch means so as to be preset in accordance with the position of the selector switch means and provide an output through gate means 103 indicative of the position of the printer carriage relative to the selected margin zone. In the preferred embodiment, the counter means 102 is of the conventional ripple type arrangement comprising a series of flip flops 104, 105, 106. An electronic margin end counter means 108 of similar design provides an output through gate means 109 indicative of the position of the printer carriage at the end of the margin zone. It will be understood that the counter means may take other forms, such as of the conventional synchronous type, and the end of margin zone output may be provided by other suitable apparatus. Switch input 110 is connected by suitable circuitry 111 to a conventional 15 millisecond one shot circuit 112 comprising AND gates 113, 114 connected by suitable circuitry 115 to movable contact 82. The margin zone switch input 110 is also connected by suitable enabling circuitry 116, 1 17, 118 to the counters 102, 108.

The counter flip flops 104, 105, 106 are connected by suitable preset circuitry 121, 122, 123 to the switch contacts 86-100 so as to be preset in accordance with a selected length of margin zone. Advancement of the counters 102, 108 in response to movement of the print carriage from space to space along a line of type in the margin zone is controlled by suitable margin control apparatus-printer circuitry 124, 126 through a counter advancing AND gate 128 and gate output circuitry 129, 130, 131. In the preferred embodiment, the output of gate 128 is controlled by a conventional system timing circuit which enables the receipt of next bit of the coded data from the reader while the system is still processing the preceding bit and holds the next bit until the previous bit has been processed. The input circuitry is arranged so that an output from the timing circuit after any printer operation causing spacing movement and the absence of a delete" code cause an output through gate 128 and advancement of the counters. The counter 108 is resettable by closure of the margin zone switch means 10, 12, whenever the print carriage is located outside the margin zone, by suitable circuitry 133, 134, 135. Counter 102 is resettable by an output through the margin zone switch means circuitry 133, 134, 135 or upon automatic restarting of automatic operation by an output received from suitable circuitry 136 through an OR gate 138 and gate output circuit 140.

A margin control on" output in the margin control apparatus is connected by suitable circuitry 142, 143, 144 to one of the inputs of the end of margin gate 109 and margin zone" gate 103 to disable the gates unless the margin control system is operative. The outputs of gates 103, 109 are connected to one of the inputs of the associated counters by suitable circuitry 145, 146 to lock the count in the counters as long as the margin control is on and the print carriage is in the margin zone. The output of margin zone gate 103 is connected to the margin control apparatus by suitable circuitry 148 to enable the automatic margin control apparatus circuitry when the counter outputs 151, 152, 153 activate gate 103 to indicate that the selected margin zone has been reached. Thus, automatic margin control operations, such as conversion of a space to a carriage return, are permitted only while the printer carriage is in the selected margin zone and prevented when out of the selected margin zone. The output of end of margin gate 109 is connected by suitable circuitry 154 to the margin control apparatus to stop automatic printing by disabling the reader in a conventional manner. The arrangement is such that when automatic printing in the margin zone is interrupted by the end of margin" output, the line of type is completed manually by the operator and the printing carriage is manually returned to the next line of type by manual carriage return. Automatic printing operation is resumed automatically on the next line of type when a carriage return output is manually generated and received by an automatic operation restart circuit along with the end of margin" output in a conventional manner.

In operation, if the operator desires a wide variation in the righthand margin during automatic printing, the selector switch contact 82 is placed in the 7 position whereat the counter 102 is preset with a count of 7 by inputs 121, 122, 123 when one shot circuit 1l2 is activated by actuation of switch means 10, 12 after the printer carriage reaches the margin zone. Gate 103 will provide an in margin zone" output for each of the next seven spaces and the margin control apparatus will be effective throughout the next seven spaces until the end of margin gate 109 is actuated by counter 108. If the operator desires a narrower margin variation, the selector switch contact 82 is placed in one of the other selector positions. When the selector switch is placed in the selected position, the counter 102 will be preset in accordance with the selected position so that the margin zone gate 103 will be actuated throughout the selected number of spaces. For example, if a margin zone of four spaces is selected by movement of the selector switch contact 82 into engagement with contact 92 at the position designated 4, the counter is preset to a count of four by input 123 which sets flip flop 106. Thus, the gate 103 will not be activated until after three spacing operations occur in the printer to complete the count of seven and thereby provide an output through gate 103 indicative of the location of the printing carriage within the selected margin zone. If for example, an effective margin zone of five spaces is selected by movement of the selector switch to the position designated 5, the counter is preset to a count of 5 by inputs 121, 123. If the selector switch is placed in position 0, the counter 102 is not preset. In each situation, the gate 103 provides a control signal, when the counter reaches a count of seven, which indicates that the print carriage is in the selected margin zone. Thus, the righthand end of the margin zone is fixed by the counter 108 and the lefthand end of the margin zone is variable depending on the count preset into counter 102.

We claim: 1. A margin control system for controlling the righthand margin of data printed on a sheet of paper or the like and controllably associated with a printer having relatively movable paper holding means and printing means to print a variable length line of type thereon and margin setting means to indicate the end of a line of type at a predetermined space, and comprising:

means in addition to said margin setting means associated with said paper holding means and said printing means for establishing one of a number of variable length margin zones of multiple spaces within which a line of type is to be ended, means associated with said printer for detecting the position of said printing means relative to a preselected one of the margin zones along a line of type,

means associated with said printer for automatically terminating the line of type in the preselected margin zone, and

means associated with said printer for preselecting one of said number of variable length margin zones and automatically temiinating operation of the printer when said printing means is located at the end of said one of said variable length margin zones.

2. Margin control apparatus for controlling the righthand margin of lines of data printed on a sheet of paper or the like and controllably associated with a printer having relatively movable paper holding means and printing means and margin setting means to indicate the end of a line of type at a preselected space, said lines of data being automatically reproduced by said printer in printed textual form, and comprising:

means in addition to said margin setting means associated with said printer to establish one of a number of variable length righthand margin zones of multiple spaces within which the lines of printed data are to be terminated,

means associated with said printer to enable an operator to preselect one of said margin zones, and

means associated with said printer to automatically terminate a line of printed data when the printer reaches the end of the preselected one of said margin zones by terminating automatic operation of the printer.

3. The invention as defined in claim 1 and wherein said last mentioned means comprises:

start of margin zone switch means on said printer operable upon relative movement locating said printing means in the first space of a preselected margin zone to provide a start of margin zone" output signal,

end of margin zone switch means on said printer operable upon relative movement of the printing means a predetermined number of spaces along a line of type past the first space to provide an end of margin zone output signal, and relatively adjustable support means for said switch means on said printer to enable the spacing between said switch means to be varied to vary the length of the margin zone.

4. The invention as defined in claim 3 and wherein said printer having a margin rack extending generally parallel to the path of relative movement of said paper holding means and said printing means.

a first bracket means slidably mounted on said rack means and carrying one of said switch means, a second bracket means slidably mounted on said rack means and carrying the other of said switch means,

said first bracket means and said second bracket means being slidably movable relative to each other to vary the spacing therebetween, and

switch actuating means carried by one of said paper holding means and said printing means and engageable with said switch means at the beginning and end of the margin zone.

5. Margin control apparatus for controlling the margin of data automatically printed on a sheet of paper or the like and controllably associated with a printer having relatively movable paper holding means and printing means relatively movable from space to space along a line of type, the invention comprising:

means associated with said paper holding means and said printing means for establishing a margin zone of multiple spaces within which a line of type is to be ended during automatic operation of the printer,

means associated with said printer for automatically ending a line of type in the margin zone during automatic operation of the printer, means associated with said printer for stopping automatic operation of the printer at the end of the margin zone,

means to preselectably vary the length of the margin zone further comprising:

a start of margin zone switch means on said printer operably upon location of the printing means at the first space of a margin zone,

counter means for counting the number of spaces traversed by the printing means in the margin zone associated with and activated by said switch means, and

electrical output means associated with said counter means and operable after a predetermined number of spaces have been counted in said counter means to provide an end of margin" output signal to terminate further automatic operation of the printer.

6. The invention as defined in claim 5 and there being additional counter means for counting the number of spaces traversed by the printing means in the margin zone,

additional output means associated with and operable by said additional counter means to provide an in margin zone output signal'enabling automatic termination of a line of type in the margin zone upon reaching a predetermined maximum count, and count presetting means associated with said additional counter means for establishing a variable length margin zone by presetting a count of a predetermined number of spaces in said counter means.

7. The invention as defined in claim 6 and wherein said count presetting means comprising:

a plurality of preset circuits,

a selector switch having a plurality of selector contacts, each selector contact being associated with one of said preset circuits, and

an adjustable contact selectively alternately movable into engagement with one of said selector contacts to selectively preset said additional counter means. 

1. A margin control system for controlling the righthand margin of data printed on a sheet of paper or the like and controllably associated with a printer having relatively movable paper holding means and printing means to print a variable length line of type thereon and margin setting means to indicate the end of a line of type at a predetermined space, and comprising: means in addition to said margin setting means associated with said paper holding means and said printing means for establishing one of a number of variable length margin zones of multiple spaces within which a line of type is to be ended, means associated with said printer for detecting the position of said printing means relative to a preselected one of the margin zones along a line of type, means associated with said printer for automatically terminating the line of type in the preselected margin zone, and means associated with said printer for preselecting one of said number of variable length margin zones and automatically terminating operation of the printer when said printing means is located at the end of said one of said variable length margin zones.
 2. Margin control apparatus for controlling the righthand margin of lines of data printed on a sheet of paper or the like and controllably associated with a printer having relatively movable paper holding means and printing means and margin setting means to indicate the end of a line of type at a preselected space, said lines of data being automatically reproduced by said printer in printed textual form, and comprising: means in addition to said margin setting means associated with said printer to establish one of a number of variable length righthand margin zones of multiple spaces within which the lines of printed data are to be terminated, means associated with said printer to enable an operator to preselect one of said margin zones, and means associated with said printer to automatically terminate a line of printed data when the printer reaches the end of the preselected one of said margin zones by terminating automatic operation of the printer.
 3. The invention as defined in claim 1 and wherein said last mentioned means comprises: ''''start of margin zone'''' switch means on said printer operable upon relative movement locating said printing means in the first space of a preselected margin zone to provide a ''''start of margin zone'''' output signal, ''''end of margin zone'''' switch means on said printer operable upon relative movement of the printing means a predetermined number of spaces along a line of type past the first space to provide an ''''end of margin zone'''' output signal, and relatively adjustable support means for said switch means on said printer to enable the spacing between said switch means to be varied to vary the length of the margin zone.
 4. The invention as defined in claim 3 and wherein said printer having a margin rack extending generally parallel to the path of relative movement of said paper holding means and said printing means. a first bracket means slidably mounted on said rack means and carrying one of said switch means, a second bracket means slidably mounted on said rack means and carrying the other of said switch means, said first bracket means and said second bracket means being slidably movable relative to each other to vary the spacing therebetween, and switch actuating means carried by one of said paper holding means and said printing means and engageable with said switch means at the beginning and end of the margin zone.
 5. Margin control apparatus for controlling the margin of data automatically printed on a sheet of paper or the like and controllably associated with a printer having relatively movable paper holding means and printing means relatively movable from space to space along a line of type, the invention comprising: means associated with said paper holding means and said printing means for establishing a margin zone of multiple spaces within which a line of type is to be ended during automatic operation of the printer, means associated with said printer for automatically ending a line of type in the margin zone during automatic operation of the printer, means associated with said printer for stopping automatic operation of the printer at the end of the margin zone, means to preselectably vary the length of the margin zone further comprising: a ''''start of margin zone'''' switch means on said printer operably upon location of the printing means at the first space of a margin zone, counter means for counting the number of spaces traversed by the printing means in the margin zone associated with and activated by said switch means, and electrical output means associated with said counter means and operable after a predetermined number of spaces have been counted in said counter means to provide an ''''end of margin'''' output signal to terminate further automatic operation of the printer.
 6. The invention as defined in claim 5 and there being additional counter means for counting the number of spaces traversed by the printing means in the margin zone, additional output means associated with and operable by said additional counter means to provide an ''''in margin zone'''' output signal enabling automatic termination of a line of type in the margin zone upon reaching a predetermined maximum count, and count presetting means associated with said additional counter means for establishing a variable length margin zone by presetting a count of a predetermined number of spaces in said counter means.
 7. The invention as defined in claim 6 and wherein said count presetting means comprising: a plurality of preset circuits, a selector switch having a plurality of selector contacts, each selector contact being associated with one of said preset circuits, and an adjustable contact selectively alternately movable into engagement with one of said selector contacts to selectively preset said additional counter means. 